Dewhurst spends $600K to launch second wave of Patrick attack ads

AUSTIN — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’ re-election campaign has reloaded with a second wave of attack ads airing statewide against state Sen. Dan Patrick — a television blitz that cost upward of $600,000, according to public records.

In a new ad, a 30-second spot called “Stuntman,” Dewhurst hits Patrick on allegations of skirting taxes and employing migrant workers and jabs again at an $800,000 bankruptcy debt.

“We just can’t trust Dan Patrick,” an actress says at the end of the ad.

The second wave of ads started airing Monday and will run through the early part of next week on broadcast stations in all four of the biggest markets in the state and on Time Warner Cable in Corpus Christi, Waco, Laredo and Harlingen (cable time in the four major markets also was purchased).

Public records show Dewhurst spent around $540,000 for the broadcast buys and another roughly $67,500 for cable spots to air ads more than 1,150 times.

The spending totals are not final. Some broadcast stations have yet to upload new contracts into a public database, and cable buys on Comcast are not searchable online.

In contrast to Dewhurst’s big spending on attack ads, Patrick, who is favored to win the May 27 runoff for the GOP lieutenant governor nomination, has spent very little snapping up television time to air rebuttals.

Patrick’s campaign on Tuesday touted a new attack ad that claimed Dewhurst’s record equates to “more taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants.”

Public records show Patrick has spent about $20,000 to air ads in San Antonio (no contracts on record in the other three major markets so far). On KSAT, the city’s most viewed broadcast station, the campaign spent $14,500 to air ads a total of 12 times through Sunday.